Dictators, androids and natural disasters: the world of today, as seen in futuristic films

The Italian director Ettore Scola once said that movies are a painted mirror. Dramas, comedies and adventures of all kinds have been presented on the big screen for decades. But the imagination of film directors when creating science fiction has taken them even further, to a once-distant future that we’ve finally reached. Many screenplays were written about the present we now live in, but how accurate were their predictions?

We know there are planets of a size similar to the Earth and at a distance from their sun that make them inhabitable. It´s also possible that there are vestiges of life on Mars, in the ice-covered oceans covered of Europa – a satellite of Jupiter – or on Enceladus, one of the moons of Saturn. Sending spaceships manned by robots to study the solar system, recreating the conditions of life on Mars inside a mine, or trying to reproduce a living organism in a laboratory – as Dan Brown relates in his latest bestseller – are some of the scientific experiments that are now being performed to solve the enigma of the origin of life.

A large part of the technologies that filmmakers imagined are already a reality. However, they are still light years away from the collective imagination of the cinema. As cosmologist Martin Rees says, “We should be open to transformative advances that today may seem like science fiction.” In the book, The Next Step: Exponential Life, which can be downloaded for free at the website of the BBVA OpenMind Project, numerous authors have addressed topics such as artificial intelligence, interstellar travel or climate change, all of which are a part of the stock-in-trade of futuristic films.

Many directors and screenwriters predicted our present as a future without freedom. Wars and domestic tensions around the world would give rise to totalitarian governments disposed to dictate everything, including what people could see and read. Such is the case of Fahrenheit 451. In 1966, Francois Trauffaut directed this film based on the Ray Bradbury novel of the same name. According to the story, in the early 21st Century, society would be ruled by authorities so concerned about protecting peoples’ happiness that they kept the populace ignorant by burning books.

Culture as a form of control is part of the police state depicted in The Running Man (1987). In this film, political leaders in the years 2017-2019 make use of a sadistic reality show to keep the population entertained and distracted. Paul Michael Glaser directed this vision of a dystopian society on The Fugitive, a science fiction novel by Stephen King that envisions a world in crisis and dominated by violence.

The development of new technologies as a means to alleviate workloads is part of the day to day running of businesses. Increasingly, robots, artificial intelligence, and computer algorithms are taking over humans in the execution of mechanical tasks. However, many theoreticians are wary of the consequences this development will bring upon the workplace. Darrel M. West discusses the impact of these emerging technologies on society in the book ‘The Next Step. Exponential Life’, which can be downloaded for free from the BBVA OpenMind project website.

As far back as 1927, Fritz Lang envisioned a 21st Century in which the divide between the classes grew ever wider. In his film Metropolis, the rule that “the ones below work for the ones above,” is taken to extremes. The earth’s surface is occupied by the wealthy, while the workers live below the ground, producing to maintain the lifestyle of the privileged class.

It´s tough to live in fear, isn´t it? That’s what it means to be a slave” (Blade Runner)

Some elements are common to all futuristic films: flying cars, robots walking the streets and omnispresent technology. Nor is there much optimism about technological development; technophobia is typical of futuristic cinema, and the fear that machines will dethrone humans as the masters of the earth has been projected constantly on the big screen. In Blade Runner (1982), Ridley Scott shows us a 2019 in which androids are persecuted and banished after mounting a rebellion against the human race. On the other hand, in Matrix (1999) directed by the Wachowski brothers, artifical intelligence has won the day, subduing humans in order to use them as an energy source.

Technology as an ally

However, technology shows itself to be a valuable ally against other threats, such as occurs in Pacific Rim (2013). Apparently director Stephen DeKnight believed that by 2020, there would be a three-dimensional gate through which some colossal monsters would reach the Earth. In this film, machine and man fight side-by-side to save the world.

'Metrópolis' (1927) directed by Fritz Lang.

Global warming and its effects have been the cause of major catastrophes in recent years. The planet has weathered powerful earthquakes such as those that shook Italy and Mexico, devastating floods in Asia and intense hurricanes throughout the American continent.

For a while after science-fiction was first coined as a term, it seemed like the only thing the genre would be capable of producing would be just that: purely fictional works with no connection to reality. Today, we can already enjoy some of the futuristic innovations featured in some movies a while back, such as virtual reality or artificial intelligence. Which sci-fi movies predicted the future digital era and got it right?

These continual wake-up calls from nature augur a discouraging future. Fortunately, they are still not as bad as the one envisioned by Michael Bay in The Isand (2005). The fiilmmaker places the viewer in a present where, due to an ecological disaster, the Earth is uninhabitable. The survivors live in concentration camps, protected from pollution, but under constant surveilance, and dream about reaching “the island,” a utopia where nature survives unscathed.

But not all evils stem from climate change. In the movies, technological progress brings with it new illnesses. Johnny Mnemonic (1995) takes the viewer to the year 2021, when electronic information is transferred via a device installed in the brain. The overload of data produces an infection known as “Black Tremor syndrome.” This man-machine symbiosis is not yet a reality, but visionaries such as Elon Musk consider it essential so that man can maintain his relevance in the face of the rollout of artificial intelligence.

I just want to live. How doesn´t matter” (The Island)

As for space travel, the cinema has always been more optimistic than science itself. Several experts, among them Stephen Hawkings, propose returning to the moon in less than three years and landing on Mars in 2025. Brian de Palma was five years ahead of these predictions in his film Mission to Mars (2000). The filmmaker predicted that 2020 will be the year in which the first manned spaceship reaches the red planet, although with catastrophic results.

Timo Vuorensola goes a step further in Iron Sky (2012). With a humoristic approach, it shows how at the end of World War II, the Nazis developed the technology necessary to flee the Earth and hide on the dark side of the moon. And in 2016, they decide to return to Earth to seek vengeance.

Fortunately, the present envisioned by these filmmakers bears little resemblance to the one we live in. At least for now, cars, don´t fly and we’re not slaves of the androids. Mars has yet to see human footprints and humans themselves are the only threat to the stability of the planet. The future, as seen in these films, remains at the cinema: the prediction is still just fiction.

Year 2049. Three decades have passed since Richard Deckard began hunting down and retiring Nexus 6 models. The Wallace Corporation has built an empire on the ruins of Tyrell Corp, designing a new generation of replicants, more obliging and integrated in society. Through the implementation of memories, the new models have an emotional foundation that makes them more stable than their predecessors, much more similar to humans.

Computers already know how to paint, write poetry, compose music and come up with jokes without assistance. They aren’t able to break molds like the great masters, but machines can be creative, explains Ramón López de Mántaras in the book The Next Step. Exponential Life, which can be download for free on the website of BBVA’s OpenMind project.

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